Having spent the night in Nelson I took the opportunity today to visit the Abel Tasman Park. So as see as much as possible I went for the half day walk followed by a half day of kayaking. This meant another early start. My holiday doesn’t seem to have any lie ins involved.

With me were Bev, Claire, Megan, Roxie and Briony. Strange to be the only bloke amongst five girls. But then again this is a Magic Tour and not the Kiwi Experience.[thumb:1258:I][newline]

After arriving at Kiwi Kayaks it was on to a Aquataxi to head up the coast to Torrents Bay for the walking part of the day. On the way we had the chance to take a picture of an impressive rock feature from the boat.  [thumb:1262:I][newline]

Moving on further up the coast it was off the back of the boat it was onto a golden sandy beach. In fact my first New Zealand beach and it was a pretty one.[thumb:1265:l][newline]

The Abel Tasman Park is very picturesque with plenty of greenary and views of the sea. Along our route down to Anchorage Bay and Watering Cove we took a detour to have a look at the pretty Cleopartra’s Pool.[thumb:1256:l][newline]

After lunching at Anchorage Bay it was over the head land to Watering Cove where we met up with Kiwi Kayaks again. Buddied up with me in my kayak was Roxie. Unfortunately for me she decided to that I was going to do all the steering and she would keep a lookout up front.

Our two hour paddle was punctuated by Briony, Roxies travelling buddy and Bev in one kayak and Claire and Sam in another ramming and generally getting in our way and preventing us making good progress. :p The sea however was very calm allowing us to get up to a good speed. Our Irish guide gave us an excellent history of the various coves and how they came to be named and why the Abel Tasman Park existed.

In the trees hanging over the cliffs we spotted a large number of cormorants with some of them spreading their wings to dry them out. There were numerous gulls sitting on the rocks picking on each other.

Eventually it came to an end and out we had to get. There’s still the chance that I’ll be able to get to do some more kayaking this holiday though.